


elephants were doing the merengue

by msinformed13



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Professors, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Family Fluff, Fluff, M/M, baby gay men, happy domestic gays, outside perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 12:41:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13704672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msinformed13/pseuds/msinformed13
Summary: {Drew was hungover so he had to do a double take. He pulled his sunglasses down his nose, rubbed his eyes, stopped dead in the middle of the aisle, and stared for a solid thirty seconds before he realized how obvious he was being.Drew hid himself behind a display at the end of the aisle, and couldn't stop himself from staring. Professor Mills was standing, bent over the handle of a cart, large black sunglasses shading her eyes, her hair slightly more rumpled than it normally was, and she was glaring at the coffee on the shelves in front of her.} Swanqueen AU Professors, established relationship told from the perspective of one of Regina's students (Repost from FFN)





	elephants were doing the merengue

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this originally as some sort of reminder that older happy gays exist. Lately I was needing that reminder again so I found it and decided to repost it on here. 
> 
> Title comes from the following Quote-
> 
> "Her head felt like elephants were doing the merengue on her cerebellum."  
> ― Susan Fanetti, Move the Sun

Drew was hungover so he had to do a double take. He pulled his sunglasses down his nose, rubbed his eyes, stopped dead in the middle of the aisle, and stared for a solid thirty seconds before he realized how obvious he was being.

Moving quickly, so as not to be seen, Drew dove behind a display of sports drinks nearby. He peeked around the bottles to confirm what he still didn't believe he had seen. Drew was in his final year at Harvard, he was a Political Science major so he wasn't a slump, but it was the day after St. Patrick's day and he was studying in Boston so he was still hung over.

Drew hid himself behind the display, and couldn't stop himself from staring. Professor Mills was standing, bent over the handle of a cart, large black sunglasses shading her eyes, her hair slightly more rumpled than it normally was, and she was glaring at the coffee on the shelves in front of her.

Her cart was full of various groceries, and Drew could swear he saw toaster waffles in the bottom somewhere. She seemed very confused, and Drew was pretty damn sure she just as hungover as he was, if not more.

Drew watched as she picked up one bag of coffee beans and squinted at the label. Professor Mills, who had a doctorate and a masters degree under her belt, who was the most feared and respected professor in the department, who spoke precisely with perfect inflection, who could give freshmen a stutter just with one look, was grocery shopping while wildly hungover.

Drew was just coming back to his senses when a tall blonde woman entered the aisle, making her way towards Professor Mills. He heard the blonde's laughter echo down the shelves, but he couldn't make out her following words as she grabbed a different bag of coffee beans, tossing it in the cart and taking the bag Professor Mills had selected to put it back on the shelf.

The blonde looked familiar somehow, he couldn't quite place it, but he knew that he had seen her face. He was still deep in thought trying to produce a name when the blonde led Professor Mills down the aisle the opposite direction as his hiding place.

…

Drew would not learn the blonde's name until weeks later. He is sitting in the grass under the shade of a tree in a park in the city with his boyfriend Rick. Drew is halfway through a dense reading for his political science class when Rick's surprised gasp from next to him, brings the man out of his daze.

"What?"

"It's Emma Swan."

Drew smiles, his boyfriend is a total literature nerd, and he recognizes the name as one of the contemporary poets that Rick is always raving about.

"Do you think I can get her to sign my book?"

Drew raises an eyebrow at his boyfriend, "Do you have it with you?"

"Always."

Ha laughs, "You can't just go over an ask someone for her signature in the middle of a park."

Rick pulls a face but conceeds, "I guess I'll just have to admire her from afar."

Drew rolls his eyes, "Where is she?"

His boyfriend immediately perks up again, pointing subtly just over Drew's shoulder, "Over there, the blonde next to the monkey bars."

Drew watches the tall woman guarding a small girl swinging from the metal bars. The little girl has darker skin than Emma does, and her hair is dark brown and curly. Apart from that they're too far for Drew to make out any real details and truth be told he is amazed that Rick has managed to identify the woman from this distance- he himself would hardly be able to sport his mother from across the park.

All the same, he smiles watching her help the girl get across the monkey bars, and then lifting her back down to the ground, "Her daughter is so cute."

Rick nods, "Her whole family is my life goals, she and her wife are both crazy successful, and they just had a baby boy a few weeks ago."

Drew laughs and tries to contain how his boyfriend talking about a future family scares him to death. Rather than linger on that, he watches the blonde and her daughter interact.

They continue wandering around the playground until the girl perks up and takes off at a sprint across the park. Emma trails her with an easy smile .

"You might actually know her wife, she teaches at the university."

"Yeah? What's her name?" Drew asks.

"I can't remember." Rick frowns adorably, "it's not Swan though. They kept their last names when they got married, some 'independent together' kind of thing. Emma wrote an amazing poem about it."

Drew smiles at his boyfriend's fan moment and watches the little girl crash into the legs of a brunette he can just hardly see the back of from his spot across the park, she hugs this woman tightly, and when Emma reaches her, they exchange a quick kiss.

Drew smiles, maybe if this is Rick's life goals, he can try to not be too afraid.

…

Drew isn't hungover, but he is extremely drunk. He's drunk because it's the middle of the night, Rick has officially decided to his graduate work at Harvard where Drew has been committed to law school for a couple of weeks already. They are celebrating.

They're out with their friends who are all looking to celebrate something before they have to accept responsibility in the real world. By celebrate they mean drink too much then dance like fools and the next morning wake up remembering that they aren't nineteen anymore and their livers can't quite take these nights as well as they used to.

But this is to be a classy event because they are classy people going to classy schools destined for classy futures buying classy homes in classy neighborhoods driving classy cars and raising classy children- so they're at a classy bar they don't normally go to.

It's further from campus and doesn't serve the cheap low quality alcohol the men had gotten used to (naturally it's only classy alcohol here). The lighting is dim and the music is so much better than the 'up and coming' DJs that normally play at the clubs they frequented.

Rick's friend Bill (or is it Will?) comes back to their table loaded down with shots of something bright green and Drew tries not to question what it could be, but all it takes is a flirty smile from Rick, and Drew is throwing his shot back and trying not to wince at the burn.

Conversation turns to the plans their friends have for their summer before grad school starts, and Drew contents himself to wrap an arm around his boyfriend and watch the club life around him. His eyes catch on a couple of women on the dance floor, and he has to tighten his grip around Rick's waist to remain upright.

"What?" Rick asks concerned that Drew's had more to drink than he had previously thought.

"Nothing, I just thought I saw someone I knew." Drew brushes it off. But his eyes remain on the women.

Across the club is Regina Mills looking just about on the verge of sex on the dance floor with the blonde he is drunkenly realizing is her wife. She's in this skin tight dress and her hair is a wild mane, a far cry from the perfect bun or professional coif he's used to seeing. She's grinding against the blonde perfectly to the bass thumping through the club and Drew is rendered speechless.

This woman is one of the most highly educated he's met, he's spent the last four years living in fear of getting bad essay comments from her, she has two children (that he's seen smiling in photos on her desk during office hours) and here she is dancing in a practically R-rated manner.

He watches them out of the corner of his eye for a while but somewhere between another acid green shot and Rick dragging him out to dance, Drew loses sight of the women and he assumes they've left. When Rick tires of dancing, Drew volunteers to get them another round and weaves his way to the bar. He leans against it and places his order, settling in for a moment when he feels someone come beside him and order a round of shots.

It is Regina, her hair tousled slightly, but still impressively put together. She has what Drew is positive might be lipstick stains on her neck that are most definitely a lighter shade than the deep red she always wears. Recognition flashes in her eyes and she smiles at him.

"Drew! Enjoying yourself?"

"Yeah." He says awkwardly, he took a seminar with her his final semester of undergrad and they had talked a few times in office hours but never anything like this.

"It's nice to see you." She says, and he can see a slight flush to her cheeks.

"You too, Professor Mills."

She chuckles a bit and shakes her head, "We're in a club, Drew. You can call me Regina."

"Right." He says, still not calling the woman by her first name.

They stand for a few moments until a mane of wild blonde curls appears over Regina's shoulder, and a pair of pale hands settle themselves on her hips, "Ruby said you were getting drinks. I figured I could help you carry them."

"Mhm." Regina, "How thoughtful, this is a student of mine Drew." The professor says nodding at him, "Drew this is my wife Emma Swan."

Realization settles in Drew's mind, "The poet!"

A shy smile crawls across Emma's face, "Yeah I suppose."

"Have you read her work?" Regina asks.

"No." He admits blushing, "My boyfriend is a huge fan, actually. He talks about your poems all the time." Drew struck a gaze around looking for Rick and smiling when he catches sight of the other man at a table with their friends, "He's just over there, in the green shirt." He says, nodding over at him.

"You should go say hi!" Regina suggests with a slight smirk.

"You don't have to." Drew says quickly.

Emma brushes it off, "I would love to." She pecks Regina on the cheek, and Drew's theory of the lighter shade of lipstick is confirmed before she walks over to the table. Drew and Regina watch as she taps Rick on the shoulder. The boy turns around and freezes, for a moment Drew is afraid that his boyfriend might pass out.

After a second, Rick's face breaks into the most excited grin and he looks like a kid meeting his favorite superhero. They talk, and Regina and Drew both laugh when he pushes a pen into her hand and she obligingly signs a bar napkin for him.

"I can't believe he asked for her signature." Drew says through his laugh.

"Emma loves it, she's so shy about people liking her work it's good for her when she talks to people who really enjoy her writing." Regina confides.

"Her second collection is what inspired him to go to grad school for literature."

"Really, where is he going?" Regina asks.

"Harvard." Drew has this proud smile that Regina can't help but mirror.

"If I remember correctly, you're staying at the big H for law school too?"  
"Yeah." Drew's smile just gets wider, "We're out celebrating."

Regina nods in understanding, "I suppose this isn't exactly the most college budget friendly establishment in the area."

The two watch as their respective significant others interact with fond smiles, "Emma and I are celebrating too, a friend of ours just got a promotion."

"You mean to say this isn't your normal weekend scene?" Drew jokes, feeling odd talking so casually with such an icon.

She laughs full and unguarded, "No, this isn't exactly an average weekend. I can't remember the last time Ruby convinced us to go clubbing."

Emma returns then, taking half the shots that the bartender had placed in front of Regina and leading the way back through the crowd. Drew balances his own drinks and departs with a smile and a shouted 'have a good night'.

When he gets back to his table Rick is still ecstatic with a megawatt grin on his face, "You're never gonna believe what just happened!"

Drew felt his grin splitting his features and he listens as his boyfriend recounts the story of his meeting THE Emma Swan.

When Rick finishes his tale, he watches the weird look on Drew's face, "What?" He asks.

Drew replaces his look with a smile, "I love you."

Here in a fancy nightclub with his boyfriend, Drew feels strong. He feels like the weight of the world can't touch him here, like he is invincible. With Regina and Emma to look to, how could he not believe in a happy ending?


End file.
